Dysentery News and Research

RSS

CNN, TIME examine increasing antibiotic resistance

CNN examines a recent report by researchers that warns of increasing antibiotic resistance and appeals for governments to take action to develop new antibiotics to avert a health crisis.

3 Oct 2009

Also in Global Health News: PNG, Nepal outbreaks; Taliban Oks polio vaccination; Technology helps in developing countries; Satellite images for malaria control

VOA News examines the ongoing struggle for Papua New Guinea's health system to treat thousands of people infected by the "simultaneous outbreaks of influenza, dysentery and cholera that have killed about 120 people." The article includes information about the difficulties heath officials are having in assessing the various outbreaks and concerns of medical workers that conditions may soon worsen (Mercer, 9/14).

16 Sep 2009

Also in Global Health news: PEPFAR in Swaziland; GSK HIV patent pool; Pediatric ARVs in Uganda; PNG declares health emergency; Israeli, ECOWAS agreement; Somali children

PEPFAR on Wednesday donated eight computers to Swaziland's Ministry of Health to aid in the country's ability to track the progress of the nation's HIV/AIDS programs, the Swazi Observer reports. According to the newspaper, the computers will be distributed to regional clinics across the country (Masilela, 9/10).

10 Sep 2009

Also in Global Health news: Flu, cholera in PNG; improving life awards; HIV/AIDS in Rwanda; men and maternal/child health; MDR-TB in India

"Twin outbreaks of a flu-like illness and dysentery in a remote region of Papua New Guinea have killed 47 people and infected another 2,000 villagers, a senior medical official said Monday," Agence France-Presse reports. According to provincial health adviser Doctor Theo Likei, the WHO has collected and is testing samples of the virus from the "stricken villages" (8/31). Additionally, the country is experiencing a cholera outbreak - "the first time the disease has officially been confirmed in the country," the BBC reports (Mercer, 8/31).

1 Sep 2009

Opinion: U.S. global health strategy; fighting drought

As the U.S. "works on a comprehensive global health strategy," we need to "expand our thinking to encompass holistic solutions that go into improving the health of the world’s poor," Bill Frist, former U.S. Senate Majority leader and current member of the Millennium Challenge Corporation's (MCC) Board of Directors, writes in a Boston Globe opinion piece.

13 Aug 2009

USAID commits $1 million to help several African nations deal with natural disasters, disease spread

USAID announced on Thursday a $1 million commitment to a Red Cross project aimed at helping those "living along southern Africa's Zambezi River cope with worsening natural disasters because of climate change," the AP/Washington Post reports.

29 Jun 2009

New understanding of 3D structure of bacterial secretion proteins

New details of the composition and structure of a needlelike protein complex on the surface of certain bacteria may help scientists develop new strategies to thwart infection.

26 Apr 2009

Key genetic mechanism a potential key to new class of antibiotics

Researchers have determined the structure of a key genetic mechanism at work in bacteria, including some that are deadly to humans, in an important step toward the design of a new class of antibiotics, according to an accelerated publication that appeared online today as a "paper of the week" in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

20 Apr 2009

War wounded at risk for superbugs

Soldiers who survive severe injuries on battlefields such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan can be at risk from developing infections of their wounds with multidrug resistant bacteria.

30 Mar 2009

Live oral Shigella vaccine licensed to PATH

The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) has licensed a pediatric vaccine against Shigella bacteria to PATH, an international nonprofit group, to support clinical trials, with the goal of developing a vaccine suitable for children in resource-poor countries.

24 Nov 2008

Population affected by cyclone in Burma/Myanmar

As many as 3.2 million Burmese are estimated to be affected by the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis, according to geographic risk models developed by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Lehman College, CUNY.

14 May 2008

Sanitation investment in poor countries would yield $9-to-1 benefits in productivity, health and other benefits

Experts estimate that $9 in productivity, health and other benefits are returned for every dollar invested installing toilets for people in countries that today are off-track in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for sanitation.

24 Mar 2008

What does the appendix do? finally an answer!

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center say that the function of the frequently discarded appendix, an organ often credited with little importance and often dismissed as having no significant function, does it seems have a role to play after all.

8 Oct 2007

Winning the battle against deadly Ebola

The latest reports from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) say health workers are slowly winning the battle against the deadly Ebola hemorrhagic fever.

2 Oct 2007

Ebola outbreak in Congo.. 8 more cases of the deadly disease

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) another 8 cases of Ebola have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

25 Sep 2007

Forces unite to tackle latest outbreak of Ebola in the Congo

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says another outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed at least five people.

12 Sep 2007

The world is in danger of missing targets for providing clean water and sanitation

The world is in danger of missing targets for providing clean water and sanitation unless there is a dramatic increase in the pace of work and investment between now and 2015, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.

5 Sep 2006

Research explains how pathogenic bacteria evolved over millions of years

Bacteria like Salmonella have a complicated immune system that helps them recognize and isolate foreign DNA trying to invade their cell membrane, according to a University of Washington-led study in the June 8 issue of Science Express.

9 Jun 2006

Childhood infections stunt growth and reduce life expectancy

Records from four European countries show that, on average, survivors of generations with rampant childhood infection - measured by cohort mortality rates at young ages - were shorter and died sooner than counterparts from generations with less childhood disease.

28 Dec 2005

Elimination of charges for health care at the point of use could have an immediate and substantial impact on child mortality

Abolishing user fees (charges for health care at the point of use) could prevent approximately 233,000 child deaths annually in 20 African countries, say researchers in this week's British Medical Journal.

3 Oct 2005